Ether anesthesia: surgery without the same experience of pain

What changed

Bigelow’s report described surgical operations performed after inhalation of ether. It supplied published clinical evidence that anesthesia could make major procedures possible without the usual conscious experience of surgical pain.

Scientific scope

The 1846 Bigelow report of insensibility during surgical operations using inhaled ether.

Evidence

Original sources and institutional historical accounts support the stated contribution. The reading boundary is recorded at each source; this assessment is not an independent scientific verification.

Contributors

• Henry Jacob Bigelow · SCIENCE: Named source contributor to this scoped work; individual labor shares are not measured.

• Insensibility during Surgical Operations Produced by Inhalation
• Insensibility during Surgical Operations Produced by Inhalation — deposited bibliography
• Bigelow: Insensibility during Surgical Operations Produced by Inhalation

Provisional WRS assessment, edition 2026-10-16.1. Independent expert calibration is pending. This grade does not certify correctness or assign ownership.

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